Chapter 4: This is happening?
AYLA
"What do you mean we could die?" Ares asked.
The priestess sighed.
She looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here with us, talking about this.
"I looked into this occurrence. It only happened during the great plague."
I knew about the great plague.
It was a story told to children to scare them to sleep... something about the extinction of all wolves.
"What happened during the plague?" Cassian asked.
I turned to him, watching the light catch his silver-white hair.
If he had been the only one, I would have considered this.
He was kind to me and he was handsome with the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen. I could still remember the one time he had cleaned my wound when I had scraped my knee trying to reach for something in his bathroom.
But there was Damon... fucking asshole who had always made my life a living hell.
"An Omega rejected her mate." The priestess began. "The Omegas used to be royalties until the Omega princess was chosen to mate with three Alphas. She refused to do so because she already had a man she loved and whom she thought the moon goddess would give to her as a mate. The princess was found dead the next morning. So were the three Alphas she rejected. By sunset, the entire royal bloodline had fallen. Within a month, the curse had spread through the pack."
I gasped at this.
"Fuck" Ares grunted.
Our eyes met in that moment and held.
My pulse raced wildly beneath my skin as heat crawled up my neck and I felt my breath hitch in my throat.
There was something disorienting about the fact that anytime he looked at me, I could barely move.
It was almost like he was stealing my very essence with the intensity of those dark green eyes.
"So it is settled" My mother clasped her hands together. "The bond stands, and my daughter Ayla will mate with the princes."
My mother’s eyes twinkled with satisfaction and something inside me twisted with irritation.
"The mating ceremony needs to happen as soon as possible." The priestess said.
"How soon?" The Alpha asked.
"Tonight, my lord"
I felt my heart drop to the pits of my stomach.
Tonight?
I was going to mate with all of them tonight?
"You should go and prepare her" The Alpha said to my mother. "Bring her to the ceremonial hall by noon. The princes will be ready and waiting for her."
My mother bowed her head.
"Of course, my lord"
She reached for me but I jerked away from her touch, my breath escaping in short pants from my parted lips.
Panic clawed at my throat.
"Come on, Ayla" my mother whispered furiously for my ears alone. "Do not fucking embarrass me, girl."
She grabbed my arm, tightly this time and shoved me forward.
I followed mindlessly, my heart close to bursting.
I could trust Prince Cassian to be gentle and maybe Ares? I had no idea if he was capable of being gentle considering I had once overheard him with my step-sister, Willow. The sounds had echoed through the walls for what felt like hours. Whatever they were doing had left Willow breathless and desperate for more.
It baffled me why she could be in so much pain and still want more.
But Damon... I did not want to imagine submitting my body to his cruel sneer and hard touch.
I shivered in dread.
My mother led me to her room, talking in excitement.
"Oh, Ayla... who would have thought?" she crooned. "I am so glad I decided to keep you after that bastard, your father decided not to acknowledge you as his daughter."
She shoved me into a chair.
"Your hair is pathetic" she stared. "But never mind... I am going to make you look like the hottest thing the princes have ever seen."
I cringed in my chair as she reached the dress I had on, undoing the zip.
I was standing naked before my mother now as she assessed my body critically, a frown touching her forehead.
"You have no breasts" she wailed. "Turn around" she ordered.
I did as she asked, turning around, my arms coming up to cover myself.
"My goodness, Ayla... you are yet to... never mind, you have a pretty face so it would have to do."
The condescending tone in her voice irked me and so I spun around, my eyes angry, hurt and fast filling with tears.
"How can you stand there and talk to me this way. You are my mother... you should be fighting for me, asking them to not do this."
She stared at me in surprise then her eyes darkened in anger.
"You know what you are, Ayla... an ungrateful fucking little shit. You have no idea how hard it was for me to decide to keep you and give birth to you even after everything I went through. Now it is your turn to take care of us and suddenly you cannot even give your mother that?"
"I am your child!" I yelled in exasperation.
"You may be my child but you are not a child. You are seventeen and you are a breeder. You should be grateful you were chosen to breed with not one but three powerful men and not lowly wolves."
I could not believe my ears.
"Did you even know I turned eighteen yesterday?"
My mother seemed surprised by that information but she quickly masked it with indifference.
"An adult now? Even better" she muttered.
"I hate you, mom... I hate you so fucking much and I wish you would fucking die and..."
My words were cut off when she slapped me across the face.
We stood staring at each other while I held my smarting face.
Finally, she said
"Get into the bathtub. We need to prepare you for tonight and if you fuck it up, I am going to strangle you with my bare hands."